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When we did our investigation into the international offices, all the evidence that we took was positive. There was good work and complementary work—everything that you have just spoken about was there. The British Council, for instance, said that it would welcome more offices and efforts opening up. However, domestically—Seona Shand touched on this—the discourse is that we hear terms such as “pretend embassies” and “waste of money”. Does the intergovernmental strain at the moment break through into the perception internationally? In relation to the rest of the UK, is Scotland the only country that is experiencing such tension, or is that shared by the Welsh Government and in Northern Ireland?

Agenda item 2 is an evidence session as part of the committee’s continuing inquiry into the Scottish Government’s national outcomes and indicators relating to international policy.

We are delighted to be joined this morning by Seona Shand, international trade director, Scottish Chambers of Commerce; Vicki Miller, director of marketing and digital, VisitScotland; Gareth Williams, head of policy, Scottish Council for Development and Industry; and Anthony Salamone, managing director, European Merchants. A warm welcome to you all.

I will open with an introductory question, which I have based on Ms Shand’s written evidence to the committee; thank you to those who made written submissions. The SCC’s submission said:

“Scotland punches above its weight on the global stage ... However, as our competitors step up their game and the uncertain world of migration, business and investment and travel evolves, we need to shift up a gear.”

I am interested in the gear shift, and in finding out whether everyone shares the opinion that those are the main challenges in the work that the Scottish Government is doing.

That exhausts the committee’s questions. I thank you all for your attendance.

The committee will now move into private session.

First, Ben Macpherson has a supplementary question.

We do not really want our discussion today to be about funding, but inevitably it comes up.

On the back of Mr Ruskell’s line of questioning, I will ask about the pivot by organisations that you talked about. We have heard lots of evidence that organisations felt that Covid reset their relationship with the funders for that time. They became trusted organisations when, all of a sudden, the restrictions on how the money could be used and which projects they could spend it on eased off, which gave the organisations an opportunity to use their own creativity to deliver, as you said, not only a cultural but a civic and wellbeing service to many communities.

The organisations are saying that they would like to continue to feel like that, but they are back to the funding cycle and what they would call a tick-box exercise. Has Creative Scotland reflected on that in relation to how it is asking people to bid for funding now and how it is assessing projects? Is there any opportunity for multiyear funding for some of the organisations that are trusted partners?

Good morning, and welcome to the 19th meeting in 2023 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee.

Our first agenda item is a decision on whether to take business in private. Are members content to take agenda item 3 in private?

Members: indicated agreement.

Some members of the committee visited a couple of cultural settings in Edinburgh, one of which was Wester Hailes Arts for Leisure and Education. You say that you are not working on an asset register, but the WHALE arts centre is obviously very much at the heart of its community. We heard that it is working with partner organisations to open up empty shop units in the area.

How can we get a picture of what is happening across Scotland if all the different strands of culture that are happening in communities are not being fed in to local authorities or Creative Scotland? Does Creative Scotland have enough awareness of community initiatives like that one?

I will take a supplementary question from Mr Bibby and then come back to Mr Cameron.

Agenda item 2 is evidence for our inquiry into culture in communities, which has focused on a place-based approach to culture. We are joined by Alastair Evans, interim director of strategy and planning, and Karen Dick, head of place, partnership and communities, both from Creative Scotland. They will not be making opening statements, because they have both submitted written evidence, for which I thank them.

The Scottish Government’s culture strategy committed to working with Creative Scotland to

“map local authority support for culture and to explore future models of collaboration between national and local bodies”.

Please give us an update on how that work is progressing.

Given what you have just said, perhaps we could look at the example of sportscotland, which has a statutory role on community planning partnerships. Its role is quite similar to yours, in that it has responsibility not just for elite sport, which could be seen as equivalent to the work that you do with the national performing companies, but grass-roots sport. Are you a wee bit jealous of sportscotland’s position as it relates to local authorities? Would it help if Creative Scotland were on the same footing with regard to how we want to move forward on the wellbeing society?